Principles

by Peter Saint-Andre

2003-05-14

I used to be a rabidly ideological libertarian (well, Randian, but libertarianism kind of falls out of that). However, over time I find that I become less attached to ideology and more attached to working pragmatically based on what I think of as Jeffersonian principles.

This requires explanation.

Ayn Rand once called libertarians "hippies of the Right". More recently I've heard them described as "Republicans who smoke dope". The essentially ideological bent of much libertarianism was brought home to me several years ago when I happened to see a television commercial for Libertarian Party presidential candidate Harry Browne, in which the candidate petulantly demanded "Freedom Now!" like some peace protester or a union member on a picket line.

While I am all in favor of freedom, insisting on immediate and total liberty is a form of stamping one's foot at reality, because the reality of human society and political culture is that one can't change everything all at once. The best one can do is to cleave to certain principles and act according to those principles. That doesn't mean selling out -- it means recognizing what is possible in the current context. It may even mean aiming for the impossible, along the lines of Vaclav Havel's dictum that "politics is the art of the impossible". But it also means not expecting (let alone demanding) immediate changes. (These comments are connected to a weblog entry from 15 months ago, in which I paradoxically stated that most people are too pluralistic to feel comfortable with utopian libertarianism, despite the fact that a libertarian utopia would be pluralistic. More on that some other time.)

So what are the principles that I advocate? I'd characterize them as follows:

• Free markets and voluntary initiatives solve problems more effectively than government programs.
• When government is (or seems) necessary, power and decisions should be as local as possible.
• The hand of even local government should be as light as possible -- as Thomas Jefferson said, "That government is best which governs least."
• Because "the power to tax is the power to destroy", government should be funded through user fees and the like -- and should never tax the fruits of individual labor.
• When in doubt, honor the original "contract with America": the United States Constitution (including the complete Bill of Rights).

Taken together, these principles lead to some surprising conclusions:

• Markets need to be free, so corporate welfare needs to be abolished (especially centralized corporate welfare, which encourages the growth of huge, faceless mega-corporations).
• When local governments get too large, they should be split up into smaller units (call it "polis envy", but I think Aristotle was onto something when he said the ideal size of a city-state was 10,000 people -- though I'd prefer to see power vested in wards or neighborhoods of less than 500 people).
• Politicians should govern from the bully pulpit and provide leadership in local community organizations rather than spending tax dollars and starting government programs.
• The federal and even state governments should not have the power to tax: money should trickle up from local governments to higher levels, not the other way around.
• Most functions performed by governments can be addressed more humanely and efficiently by businesses, non-profit organizations, and local volunteers -- including schools, parks, libraries, even safety and security.

Of course, I'm not directly involved in politics so it's easy for me to spout off about Jeffersonian principles. Maybe someday I'll put these ideas into practice by running for office -- but not while I'm working 14 hours a day on Jabber.

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